Context

‘Mother and Child (Divided)’, a cow and calf bisected and preserved in four tanks of formaldehyde, was first exhibited as part of the ‘Aperto 93’ Venice Biennale exhibition. It is a key early ‘Natural History’ work and subsequently formed the focal piece in the 1995 Turner Prize competition, won by Hirst.

The cows are removed from nature, both through their unorthodox presence within a gallery setting, and by death. The artist explains, “In a way, you understand more about living people by dealing with dead people. It’s sad but you feel more ... my cows cut up in formaldehyde have more personality than any cows walking about in fields.”[2]

The cows, tragic in that they’re amongst “the most slaughtered animals ever”, are used to demonstrate, “an emotional thing which you are dealing with in a very brutal, unemotional way.”[3] The title of the work is simultaneously an acknowledgement of the bisection, and an expression of the violence inherent, “in any sort of relationship, like trying to keep a relationship together when it is falling apart.”[4]

[1] Damien Hirst cited in Damien Hirst and Gordon Burn, ‘On The Way to Work’, (Faber and Faber, 2001) 228.